Wisconsin family reacts to news over relative shot and killed in Mount Rainier

By Annie Scholz

CREATED Jan. 2, 2012 - UPDATED: Jan. 2, 2012

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  • Annie Scholz reports Video by tmj4.com

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STURGEON BAY- A nationwide manhunt is over for the man who killed a national park ranger, but the heartbreak for Margaret Anderson's family continues.  
 
She was a ranger at Mount Rainier in Washington state.
 
TODAY'S TMJ4's Annie Scholz spoke with her relatives in Wisconsin Monday night.
 
It was a heartbreaking start to the New Year for Doris and Bob Loss in Sturgeon Bay when they got the phone call that their niece had been killed by a gunman, as she fought to keep others safe.
 
Doris Loss told TODAY'S TMJ4, "I said 'how are you?' and he said 'not good at all' and then he told me the story."
 
Doris and Bob Loss got the call from their nephew that their niece, Margaret Anderson, was shot and killed while she worked her shift Sunday as a park ranger on Washington's Mount Rainier.
 
"What we're told is she didn't even get out of the car. He came up and fired and she was sitting in her vehicle," said Bob Loss.
 
Investigators say Benjamin Colton Barnes, a vet with a stash of high-powered weapons, drove to the mountain after a previous shooting in Seattle.
 
He'd already run a safety checkpoint when he reached Anderson.
 
The wife and mother of two, was one of about a dozen people on duty at
Mount Rainier, her husband is also one of them.  He was working when it happened.
 
Meanwhile, authorities found the suspect's body. But Bob Loss shared his perspective on the whole situation, saying, "If anything, we've realized the fragileness of life.  It's like an incandescent bulb, when it goes it goes, and you never know when it's going to happen."
 
Doris Loss described Margaret as, "she never complained, she always smiled, she was
Willing to help anyone, very compassionate."
 
There's still a lot of information coming in about exactly what happened, but as soon as things settle down, Bob and Doris Loss say they'll be on the first flight to Washington to be with the family.